Archibald Hall
In what different lights does the Word of God present to the mind those truths which are objects of our faith? It is sufficient at present to observe that these things are characterised (1) as things we do not see, (2) as things real and substantial, (3) as things that are “worthy of all acceptance” and (4) as things which God has revealed for our benefit.
1. The objects of our belief are things we do not see.
Hence the Apostle says, “We walk by faith, not by sight”: and again, “We look not at things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal”. To walk by sight is here opposed to walking by faith; and looking at things which are seen to looking at things which are not seen. For the same reason, faith is described to be “the evidence of things not seen”. Many things which a Christian believes are in themselves of a spiritual nature, and so not capable of being objects of our senses. “No man hath seen God at any time” with his bodily eyes; and yet Moses is said to have endured as “seeing Him who is invisible”, by faith. The providence of God is out of sight and the blessings of the gospel do not come within the range of sense; yet both of them are proper objects of faith.
Several things proposed to our belief are far above our apprehension; not only too glorious to be perceived by the bodily senses, but so transcendent that the close application of the mind cannot trace them out. The perfections of God, the distinction and union of the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost, and the unsearchable riches of Christ, are of this sort. Some of the objects of faith are things past and gone: the doctrines relating to the eternal purpose of God, His unbeginning love, and the creation of the world. Other things are at too great a distance for us to have any immediate enjoyment of them as they are in themselves: of this kind is the present state of the invisible worlds. Again others of them are future, as the second coming of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, the final judgement, and the misery and glory that shall follow it. But it is the essential character of all the objects of our belief that they are not seen while we believe them, for when we look at things which are seen, we do not live by faith; but if we look at things which are not seen, we walk by faith and not by sight.
2. The objects proposed to our faith, in the Word of God, are real and substantial.
Though they are things not seen, they are not imaginary but have the most certain and real existence. Carnal minds, devoted to time and sense, reckon nothing is excellent and substantial but the riches, pleasures and honours of this world. Gross and dangerous infatuation! Hear, ye deaf, and consider, ye careless ones, the judgement of God, which is according to truth. Thus saith the Lord, “Labour not to be rich, cease from thine own wisdom. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not?” “The fashion”, or the specious appearance, “of this world passeth away”, like a cloud, or a shadow. “Labour not for the meat which perisheth.”
God has drawn the following character of worldly men, who have their portion in this present life, as a strong protest against their folly and delusion: “Ye . . . rejoice in a thing of nought,” even when you are most successful according to your wishes. But the things presented to our belief, in the Word of God, are summarily comprehended and truly described, in that concise assessment of them: “a better and an enduring substance”. They do not derive their worth and reality from the misapprehensions of a deceived mind, nor from the depraved attachments of a corrupt heart, but from the appointment, purpose and covenant of the Most High. Scripture does not amuse us with “cunningly devised fables” when it brings life and immortality to light; it informs us of things that are real, certain and eternal. Surely the faith which is built on the record of God is no fancy; the hope of eternal life, founded upon His Word, is no delusion and shall never make the saints ashamed of their confident expectation.
3. The objects of faith are proposed to mankind as things that are “worthy of all acceptation”.
They are supremely good and altogether suitable to the undone condition of guilty sinners. Is the advice of a doctor worthy of being accepted by a distressed patient? Is the kind offer of food and drink worthy of being accepted by a man that is ready to die for hunger and thirst? Is a ruler’s pardon worthy of being accepted by a convicted criminal? Are clothes worthy of being accepted by someone who is perishing through nakedness and the severity of the weather?
Then surely the salvation of God is worthy of all acceptation, because it includes all that we need for the pardon of our sin and the peace of our conscience, all that is necessary to renew our nature and sanctify us throughout, all that is useful to establish and secure our comfort, and all that is required to make us completely happy, both here and hereafter. As the plan of salvation is stated in the gospel, it is adapted in all points to our case. There is a sufficient and suitable remedy for our sinful and miserable situation in the revelation of divine grace. Therefore, since the things proposed to our faith are so excellent in their own nature and so suitable to our condition; since they are entirely sufficient for all our needs and alone suitable for our relief; since they declare the glory of God and accomplish the salvation of sin when sinners believe them, these objects of faith unquestionably deserve to be esteemed blessings that are worthy of all acceptation by the sons of men.
4. The objects of our belief are directly proposed by God in His Word to mankind sinners, for their personal benefit.
In other words, the blessings of the gospel are revealed in the Scriptures as the free gift of God to a lost world, that every sinner may have a sufficient warrant and a valid right to believe that they are really given to him in the gracious promises of God.
Thus we see in what light God is pleased to set divine things before our view in the declarations of the gospel. Now it is proper to inquire, How is the mind employed about these objects of its faith, when it believes them? The general answer is that the mind, in believing, is persuaded that these objects are just what God has said they are; accordingly it depends on the revelation He has made of them for complete salvation and eternal life. A more particular answer may be gathered from Paul’s account of the faith of the patriarchs, when he says, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them”. This account of their faith throws light on the general description of believing, as “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”. It comprehends the whole exercise of the mind about divine truth, when it is proposed as the object of our belief.
The objects of faith are “things not seen”, and the Apostle says these patriarchs “had not received the promises” which they believed; that is, they did not see them accomplished; they did not receive the blessings therein promised. Whenever a promised blessing is actually received and seen, it ceases to be any longer the object of faith, because the promise concerning it has been performed, and the favour that had been promised cannot be any more an object of hope, after it is actually in possession.
Again, the objects of faith are things real and substantial, and the Apostle says the believing patriarchs “saw [the promises] afar off”; that is, they perceived that the blessings promised in them were real, desirable and satisfactory; they understood the meaning of them and discerned something of the nature of these precious benefits God had promised to confer, though at a great distance of time to come. When the meaning of a divine promise is opened to the understanding, and when the authority and faithfulness of God are perceived in His Word, the soul sees complete reality in the promises of God, and possesses the fullest conviction of things not seen, because it judges Him faithful who has promised.
Moreover, it has been observed that the objects of our belief are presented to us in the Word of God as things that are “worthy of all acceptation”. And the Apostle strongly intimates that the believing patriarchs considered them in this light, while they saw the promises “and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth”. Could their conduct be consistent with itself, or reconcilable to reason; could it be approved by their own minds, or accounted for to the world, without supposing that they esteemed the promises of God “worthy of all acceptation”? It is manifest they reckoned these promises “all [their] salvation, and all [their] desire”.
Finally, it has been observed that eternal life is presented to mankind sinners in the declarations of the gospel, as the free gift of God, which warrants everyone to be persuaded that the inestimable gift is presented to him and to embrace it for his own benefit. The apostle says that the ancient fathers in the church of God saw the promises “and were persuaded of them, and embraced them”. They understood the meaning and purpose of the promises of God; they were fully satisfied in their own minds that the promises were the true sayings of God; they did not have the least distrust about the certainty that they would be performed; and they embraced the promises as their own; they hugged them, as it were, to their very souls and wholly depended on the God of truth to be and to do to them all that He has said in the promises of His Word.
This, I apprehend, is the genuine faith of the gospel, that brings relief to the guilty and gives a lost sinner the conscious enjoyment of Christ’s everlasting righteousness and complete salvation. At the same time, he sees these glorious and necessary blessings presented in the promises of the Word, so that he might enjoy them; and he is persuaded that God indeed presents these things for his immediate benefit. Accordingly he embraces the promises in which they are presented to him, and depends only upon the free gift of God as his entire title to these and all other promised benefits. In so doing, he receives God’s testimony, according to its true meaning and intention and sets “to his seal that God is true”.
1Hall (1736-78) belonged to one of the Scottish Secession Churches and, for the last 13 years of his life, he ministered to their congregation in Wall Street, London. This is an edited extract from Hall’s Treatise on the Faith and Influence of the Gospel.